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Senators Debbie Stabenow (Mich.) and Chris Dodd (Conn.) are two of the Democrats pushing party leaders and the White House to speed up key benefits in the health reform bill to kick in by 2010.
AP photo composite by POLITICO

“I can understand their desire to have some fig leaf to protect them against understandable voter concern about the fact that insurance premiums are going to go up. You are taking half-trillion dollars from Medicare and you are going to raise taxes on middle class families,” Cornyn said. “Those are unpopular positions, so I can understand their desire to front-load and show something for it.”

A Kaiser Family Foundation poll released last week showed Democrats risk disappointing voters with the delayed timetable, which lawmakers view as necessary given the complexity of implementing the reforms.

The survey found voters are unaware that the major components — $450 billion in subsidies to purchase coverage and a menu of insurance market reforms — wouldn't kick in for four years. Forty-nine percent of respondents said they expected people to begin receiving financial assistance to buy coverage this year or next. Fifty-one percent said they expected insurers to begin accepting customers regardless of preexisting conditions this year or next.

The Senate Finance Committee has already posted a one-page memo on its website titled “What You Get Right Away: Immediate Relief for Families and Small Businesses.” The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which also passed a health care bill, prepared its own list of immediate benefits.

Both documents read like a blueprint of Democratic talking points for the 2010 elections.

“It helps to have more to run on in the midterms and to prime the pump for 2012,” said a senior Democratic aide of the front-load strategy. “Also, you want to have real, practical effects folks can feel right away so the issue is a clear tangible — not just rhetorical — victory. It’s a big part of this.”

Stabenow said she is working with other senators to influence the closed-door negotiations among Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who is representing the HELP committee. In several cases, the HELP bill offers earlier effective dates on key provisions — and Stabenow and others are pressing Reid to go with the more immediate approach.

“We want to have as much front-ended as possible,” Stabenow said.

The Senate HELP bill would immediately require family policies to cover young adults until age 26, while the Finance bill sets up a “young invincible” policy beginning in 2013.

Both Senate bills establish a reinsurance fund that protects early retirees from losing their health care coverage, but only the HELP bill kicks into effect immediately. Pushed by Stabenow and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the fund would cover catastrophic claims of retirees between 55 and 64 who receive coverage through employer-based plans.

Insurance companies would be required to report the proportion of premium dollars that are spent on items other than medical care. Hospitals would need to itemize charges so consumers could compare prices. States would be compelled to establish an insurance ombudsman office that would intervene with companies on behalf of consumers.

Under both bills, people who have been denied insurance due to pre-existing conditions or who have been uninsured for six months could seek coverage in a high-risk pool available in 2010.

Out-of-pocket costs for prevention and wellness programs under Medicare would be eliminated in 2010 under the HELP bill and 2011 in the Finance bill.

“Anything that we can do to realize reforms that won’t take money upfront and at the same time create real relief for families, we are for,” said New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Readers' Comments (400)

Well, yeh..If we get to start paying taxes for this the minute Obama signs it, why do we have to wait four years for its so-called benefits to kick in? The dems are right to be worried about this. My guess is Obama wants to be long gone before this disaster starts up full force.

Democrats are pushing Senate leaders and the White House to speed up key benefits in the health reform bill to 2010, eager to give the party something to show taxpayers for their $900 billion investment in an election year.

$1 Trillion is the latest figure. Where is Politico getting a $900 billion investment?

TeamPOLITICO: Oct. 25, 2009 - 8:07 PM EST

“Democrats will be the party that passed health care reform, and Republicans will be the party that tries to repeal it,” said Jim Kessler, vice president for policy at Third Way, a centrist policy organization. “The challenge on health care has always been to demonstrate to the middle class that this bill is really for them and that it will provide them stable coverage that they can count on through thick and thin.

The Chosen One wants the Health Care screwing to be after the 2012 Presidential elections as he feels that we aren't smart enough to realize he is having carnal knowledge with us. It should start as soon as he signs the bill that will kill health care as we know it. A blue dog dem that has absolutely no use for the left wing of the dem party.

The Chosen One wants the Health Care screwing to be after the 2012 Presidential elections as he feels that we aren't smart enough to realize he is having carnal knowledge with us. It should start as soon as he signs the bill that will kill health care as we know it. A blue dog dem that has absolutely no use for the left wing of the dem party.

These crooks only care about their re-election. Its all about fooling the people to make them feel like they got something while sticking a knife in their back. However, it wont work. This ploy is just a testament to the fact that these Washington reruns do not have a clue for how they are perceived by the public and why their rankings are so poor. We see their actions loud and clear. We are bankrupt folks and we need jobs..jobs..jobs. The focus on more entitlement programs just makes us more angry. Throw out the bums. Lets hope the final bill gets dumped then maybe Congress can try to screw something else up.

Again, i find myself in agreement with my ideological opponents on the left. I never did see what the sense is of putting the various changes off until 2012. Yes, the insurance industry needs time to adjust to a new environment, but not 3 years. Not even 2. Big busines is getting more nimble, aided by computer technology, etc.

And the real truth is, like my not-so-good friends in the democrat party, what I REALLY want is single payer, nationalized health care, like in Europe. The more I read and hear from various sources, the more I am con vinced that CONSERVATIVES should want that also. We spend 16% of our GDP for mediocre health outcomes and shorter lives. Our competitors spend about 10%. That makes them able to invest in better basic infrastructure, which in turn makes their economies more productive, etc.

Can't these people wake up and see that we are getting our butts kicked by the emerging markets and even Latin America? We need to do better, or fall behind.

I hate to think that it is simple corruption, bribes from the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical companies which is preventing the Republicans from supporting single payer. There has to be more to it than that.